About Me

I am a theatrical costume cutter/tailor at North America's largest repertory theatre. I've been working in the theatre since 1986, and have the privelege of working with many of the top-notch designers in Canada, the US and the UK. These include Desmond Heeley, Ann Curtis, Santo Loquasto, Patrick Clark, Christina Poddubiuk, John Pennoyer, Charlotte Dean, Susan Benson, Meredith Caron, Dany Lyne, Francois St.Aubin, Paul Tazewell, Jonathan Fensom, Debra Hanson among many others.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

one more doublet

One more doublet. I'm at 6 so far for the three characters that I am doing for this show. That doesn't include coats breeches, shirts and capes and all the rest.

This one was just basted up for a fitting. The fabric is flat mounted to washed and preshrunk white duck-I can't remember the weight but it's sturdy and tightly woven. We usually flat mount things like this by machine, not by hand.I think that we will need to put in some spiral steel boning down the front edge, side fronts and side back, to keep him looking crisp and neat. We'll have to unpick a bit so the boning tape can be mounted on the duck and not go through the outside fabric. I should have done that before it was flat mounted but I obviously wasn't thinking clearly at the time. Don't even ask!If the casing is in but the boning isn't needed there's no harm in having the boning casing there unused.

If the fabric frays easily, we will serge the seam allowances to keep it stable, and then the body is machined together. The sleeves are flat mounted on a lighter weight washed cotton and machined. The sleeve head has some gathering in it so that is put in, and the sleeves are basted or pinned to the armholes.The skirts are mounted on duck as well, the edges basted back by hand, and then they are basted by hand to the doublet body. The collar is also just basted onto interfacing that we prepare for collars and basted to the neckline.The reason it's done by hand, is that it is easier to take bits off in the fitting for either fitting or design changes.After the fitting, the designer and assistant have chosen a lining for the sleeves, and the trim/banding that will decorate the fronts and skirts and sleeves.